Listeriosis deaths, a surprise?

This is in reference to the unprecedented recall of the meat products because some people have become infected in Canada with the listeriosis bacteria. I believe that this sort of disaster should not be such a surprise and that this can happen in any industrialized nation, considering the recent trends common to all. I can think of two major arguments off hand as to why this disaster could have happened and how this situation can happen again. I may come up with a third or more as I explore this through writing.

I do not want to limit this criticism to the health departments or to the food industry in general. Quite the opposite, my critique also includes other areas, such as why a bridge collapses accidently or why such companies as Enron fall into such financial ruin. I am just using the latest in current events to express my critique. I do not consider myself The expert, but if my criticism rings true, I hope that the appropriate changes will be implemented instead of playing the credentials game. In other words, if "wisdom comes out of the mouth of babes", then we should ignore the foolishness out of the mouth of the experts. Judge the wisdom on the statement itself and not upon the speaker.

Today I will only focus upon one of my two arguments, the trend of downsizing. Lets start with the illustration of a company with 10 people doing the work of 10 people. This wonderful company succeeds wonderfully with happy employees. One day, the boss decides to get 9 people to do the work of 10 people.... its only a 10% increase in work output for each remaining employee. Other companies, out of competitiveness follow suit. This lasts for about 10 years or so and then when it has been forgotten that the work of 10 people is being done by 9, the boss reduces his workforce by 1 which now causes 8 people to do the work of 10 people. The boss can justify this by saying to the remaining employees that they are only increasing the existing workload by aproximately 10%. No one seems to remember that the real increase is 20% from what is normal. Another 10 or so years go by and another reduction. If this trend started in the 1970's and we are now in the 2000's, we would have this company of 6 people doing the work of 10.

Can it really be a surprise that more mistakes are made? We are asked as a society to cut corners to keep the same output or even increase an output with even less resources. If we fed our athletes in the same way we feed our industries, how long would it take for them to collapse? The remaining employees are more exhausted, so they take more sickdays just to cope, the ones that manage to stick it out acquire burnouts and become unproductive despite their will to continue. With these well-meaning employees, unfortunate mistakes seem to prop up.

The most ironic statistics that I have seen are the ones that show European workers who work less work hours a day than American workers, European workers who also work less work days per week compared to American workers, and European workers who have much more paid vacation weeks per year than their American counterparts..... and with all of this, the Europeans still out-produce Americans?! And with this, the Europeans record less stress-related diseases and less sickdays. Now I am unsure if they compensate this by having enough workers to work their jobs (as in 10 workers to do the job of 10 people). But we should definitely look into this and not take on more than we can chew.

The human can probably do more than usual for limited amounts of time, like when a natural disaster strikes, the human can work harder and longer than normal.... but I don't think this is something that can be maintained for any length of time. It just seems that many employers are trying to milk this extra energy for all its worth without looking at the long term costs for society at large.

So to me, this listeriosis accident could have been prevented and avoided, and it should not have surprised anyone who has taken the time to contemplate the consequences of yesterday's decisions. Cutbacks on personel for the past few decades are only starting to make their unfortunate effects be felt.